It's a Catholic Thing

That is the great thing about us Catholics, we never deviate from the rubrics of the laity. Child puking in your hand? Genuflect and make your way to the bathroom. Toddler have a flesh wound? Cross yourself and then continue with direct pressure. A plane crashed into the back of Church? Make your way to the nearest exit, bless yourself with Holy Water and then exit the Church.

From the Real Life Rosary Weblog (HT Happy Catholic)

The cure for the common liturgical dance

Catholic churches do not use enough Palestrina these days. If heaven has a soundtrack, I hope this is included.

The Clown Mass

Given my constant complaining about bad hymns at our services, someone suggested that I read "Why Catholics Can't Sing" by Thomas Day, a music professor at Salve Regina College. Day is frustrated by what he sees has the "triumph of bad taste" in American Catholic culture. Unlike many, however, he believes that Vatican II is not responsible for our bad hymns (and poor taste) but that it represents a much deeper cultural issue with American Catholicism.

One example of bad taste is the "clown Mass" where the priest and other ministers dress up as clowns. I thought it was a joke. Turns out I was wrong.



Yes, that is a priest wearing a clown vestment and clowns standing next to him in the sanctuary. How did we come to this -- in forty years from the Latin Mass to this?

I really hope this priest's bishop had a sit down with him immediately.

Will American Catholicism Ever Find its Singing Voice?

In a long post touching many subjects, The Anchoress notes a problem that all American Catholics have noticed. Namely, the poor quality of modern church music.

Worst Jesus Praise Song Ever. Really. That’s execrable. H/T Junkyard Blog. 95% of all “praise music” and 98% of all Catholic “hymns” written since 1972 are just shudder-inducing. Most of what is played at mass these days serves as useful penance and not much else.

Partly, this is due to the "progressive" priests who tried to make the new Mass more "relevant. But some is I believe due to the movement to the vernacular after Vatican II. As much of the Catholic musical tradition was in Latin it seemed the right time not just to change languages, but also styles (this was also needed as pre-Vatican II, much of the music was meant to be LISTENED to, not sung). The result was a hymnal full of songs that were either unsingable or just plain silly. Not all of the new music was bad, but so much of it was. It lacked majesty and reverence.

There are some very good hymns. Often they are seen as too old fashioned, but Catholicism and the feelings that the Mass and hymns conjure up SHOULD feel old fashioned.

One solution is for the English speaking church to look to the hymnal of the high church Anglo-Catholics. They have almost 600 years of expressing the majesty of God in the English language. I have been to high church Anglican weddings where the music was uplifting and expressed perfectly my feelings toward God and Christ. While it might seem slightly scandalous to use Protestant music in the Catholic Church, do not forget that the greatest of the early Anglican psalm composers, Thomas Tallis, was a practicing Catholic his entire life.